Wednesday, November 21, 2012

My grandpa is a farmer and he told me last year that a
turkey is so stupid it will drown in the rain if he looks up. He said when it
starts to rain they look up and water goes down their throats and they will
drown. I told him we have wild turkeys that come by our house in Southampton and when it rains they just go under a bush.
What about you? Have you heard of a turkey drowning in the rain? ~ Suffolk County, New
York

The idea that turkeys drown in the rain is a new to me too.
I looked it up on snopes.com and found that it seems to be a common urban
legend but not true. Below is an excerpt from a good article by the Oregon
State University Animal Sciences department that explains more:

Turkey
may be top choice for the holiday feast, but the live birds don't have much of
a reputation for smarts. The result, turkey has become synonymous with dumb.

Tom Savage, a poultry scientist in the Oregon State
University Animal Sciences Department, is tired of all the ridicule turkeys
have had to endure. The researcher has spent a lot of time with turkeys and
feels strongly that the use of the turkey as a metaphor for stupidity is unfair
and inaccurate.

"I've always viewed turkeys as smart animals with
personality and character, and keen awareness of their surroundings," said
Savage. "The dumb tag simply doesn't fit." Backing up his claim, Savage referred to the story about how
turkeys are so stupid that they sometimes look up at clouds overhead while it's
raining and keep staring skyward until they drown.

Although he has never heard of this actually happening,
Savage noted that some turkeys do cock their heads back, stare up at the sky,
and hold that position for up to a minute or more. But the behavior is a
genetically-caused nervous disorder called tetanic torticollar spasms, he said.
"It's an example of how a misunderstood animal behavior becomes identified
as proof that the animal is extremely lacking in intelligence," Savage
said.

He admits that some of the turkey's unique characteristics
probably do encourage people to think turkeys are stupid. For example, domestic
turkeys tend to look awkward, particularly when they are running. Savage
counters that this is because they have been bred to be heavy, meaty birds,
much larger than their sleeker wild cousins.

Savage responds that wild turkeys are very good fliers so
it's not unusual that domesticated turkeys instinctively try to fly. But, of
course they can't fly very well, or far, because they're too heavy, he said.

A realist, Savage acknowledges that improving the turkey's
reputation for intelligence is an uphill battle. Just the same, he insists on
doing what he can to debunk the myth of the dumb turkey. "I'm an advocate
for turkeys," he said, "except on Thanksgiving."